Systems and methods for creating a virtual channel for binge watching

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods are described herein such that, a media guidance application presents, in an interactive program guide, a virtual content source for binge watching a program series. The media guidance application may determine a program series a user is currently watching. The media guidance application may receive a user selection of a media asset. The media guidance application may determine a length of time between a current time and a start time of the media asset. The media guidance application may determine the next episodes of the program series the user can watch before the start time of the media asset and present them using a virtual content source.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.15/475,633, filed Mar. 31, 2017, currently allowed, which is herebyincorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

Due to the increase in on-demand viewing and online streaming, multipleepisodes of serial programming media are now accessible to users forwatching consecutively. For example, a user may wish to watch multipleepisodes of a series in one sitting. However, current systems do notdetermine how many episodes a user normally watches in one sitting orhow many episodes the user can watch before watching a media asset at ascheduled time.

SUMMARY

Accordingly, systems and methods are described herein ensuring that auser will be able to visualize and consume multiple episodes of a seriesusing a virtual channel. In particular, a media guidance applicationdescribed herein presents, in an interactive program guide, a virtualcontent source for binge watching a program series. For example, if auser binge watched the first three episodes of Game of Thrones in onesession, then a virtual content source will be presented in theinteractive program guide including the next three episodes of Game ofThrones.

The media guidance application may determine if a user is binge watchinga program series. This determination may be made if the user watchesmore than one episode of the program series at a time. If the user hasbeen binge watching a program series, the media guidance application maypredict how many episodes the user may want to watch next based on theaverage number of episodes of the program series the user watches. Forexample, if the user typically watches two episodes at a time, the mediaguidance application may predict that the user will want to watch thenext two episodes of the program series. The media guidance applicationmay then present the predicted next episodes in a virtual content sourcerepresenting the program series. The virtual content source may bepresented in an interactive program guide alongside other contentsources. The media guidance application may auto play the next episodeswithout any user intervention.

The media guidance application may determine how many episodes the usermay want to watch based on the time of day or day of the week. Forexample, if it is a week day and the user has to go to work the nextmorning, the media guidance application may predict that the user willwant to watch only the episodes that the user can watch before they wantto go to sleep. The media guidance application may determine how manyepisodes the user may want to watch based on the amount of timeavailable in the user's schedule.

The media guidance application may determine how many episodes the usermay want to watch based on an established pattern of watching abroadcast program at a specific time. For example, if the user watchesthe late night local news program every night, the media guidanceapplication may predict that the user will want to watch only theepisodes that the user can watch before the start time of the late nightlocal news program.

The media guidance application may present a virtual channel includingepisodes of multiple program series. The media guidance application maydetermine which episodes of the multiple program series to include basedon the amount of time available in the user's schedule. For example, ifthe user has ninety minutes available in their schedule, the mediaguidance application may select a sixty minute episode of a programseries and a thirty minute episode of a different program series.

Virtual channels offer the user a convenient way of visualizing mediaassets from various sources of content. The media guidance applicationmay generate a virtual channel based on a particular content source, aparticular program series, or user preferences. The media guidanceapplication may generate a virtual channel composed of content that maynot be broadcast content. For example, a channel that is created formedia content that has been recorded may be considered a virtualchannel.

Virtual channels may also be generated based on a user's past behaviorpatterns or moods. For example, if the user has a pattern of bingewatching a particular program series when the user is angry, the virtualchannel may be generated based on episodes of that particular programseries. The media guidance application may present multiple virtualchannels that correspond to different behavior patterns or moods.

Virtual channels may also be generated based on recommended programseries. Virtual channels may also be generated based on a particulargenre. For example, a virtual channel may be generated for sci-fimovies. Virtual channels may also be generated based on program type.For example, a virtual channel may be generated for reality shows.Virtual channels may also be generated based on a particular targetaudience. For example, a virtual channel may be generated for children.Virtual channels may also be generated based on the viewing history. Forexample, a virtual channel may be generated including the user'sfavorite shows presented in the user's typical viewing order.

The media guidance application may determine how many episodes of aprogram series the user can watch before the start time of a media assetthe user wants to consume. For example, if the user wants to watch thenews at a certain time, the media guidance application may determine howmany episodes of a program series the user is currently watching can beconsumed before the news begins.

In some aspects, a media guidance application may determine a programseries a user has started watching. The determination of the programseries may be performed by retrieving, from a database, a datastructure, wherein the data structure comprises multiple indicators. Insome embodiments, the media guidance application may extract, from thedata structure, a first indicator of the multiple indicatorscorresponding to a program series, wherein the first indicator indicatesa number of episodes of the program series the user has watched. In someembodiments, the media guidance application may determine that thenumber of episodes of the program series that user has watched is morethan one.

The media guidance application may predict a number of episodes of theprogram series that the user will binge watch based on tracking anaverage number of episodes the user binge watches. The prediction of thenumber of episodes of the program series that the user will binge watchmay be performed by extracting, from the data structure, a secondindicator of the multiple indicators corresponding to the programseries. The second indicator may indicate a first number of bingewatching sessions during which the user has watched at least one episodeof the program series. In some embodiments, the media guidanceapplication may calculate an average number of episodes the user watchesin one binge watching session based on the number of episodes of theprogram series the user has watched and the first number of bingewatching sessions during which the user has watched at least one episodeof the program series. In some embodiments, the media guidanceapplication may determine a predicted second number of episodes of theprogram series that the user will watch during a current binge watchingsession based on the average number of episodes the user watches in onebinge watching session. In some embodiments, the media guidanceapplication may determine the predicted second number of episodes of theprogram series that the user will watch during the current bingewatching session based on the time of day or day of the week associatedwith a prior binge watching session.

The media guidance application may determine multiple episodes of theprogram series that the user has not watched. In some embodiments, themedia guidance application may determine, based on the first indicatorof the multiple indicators corresponding to the program series, multiplenext episodes of the program series the user has not watched.

The media guidance application may select a subset of the multipleepisodes of the program series that the user has not watched based onthe predicted number of episodes of the program series.

The media guidance application may create the virtual content sourceincluding the subset of the multiple episodes of the program series thatthe user has not watched. In some embodiments, the media guidanceapplication may create the virtual content source by retrieving thesubset of the multiple next episodes of the program series from multiplecontent sources. In some embodiments, the multiple content sources maycomprise broadcast, on-demand, recorded, and streaming video contentsources.

The media guidance application may generate for display, in theinteractive program guide, the virtual content source simultaneouslywith multiple media asset indicators corresponding to at least one othercontent source.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may extract, fromthe data structure, a third indicator of the multiple indicatorscorresponding to the program series. The third indicator may indicate athird number of binge watching sessions during which the user haswatched at least two episodes of the program series. In someembodiments, the media guidance application may determine that the thirdnumber of binge watching sessions during which the user has watched atleast two episodes of the program series is more than one. In someembodiments, the media guidance application may determine, based on thefirst indicator of the multiple indicators corresponding to the programseries, the multiple next episodes of the program series the user hasnot watched. In some embodiments, the media guidance application maydetermine the predicted second number of episodes of the program seriesthat the user will watch during the current binge watching session basedon a second average number of episodes the user watched during the thirdbinge watching sessions.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may extract, fromthe data structure, a fourth indicator of the multiple indicatorscorresponding to the program series. The fourth indicator may indicatean average length of time the user spends watching the program seriesduring the first binge watching sessions. In some embodiments, the mediaguidance application may determine the predicted second number ofepisodes of the program series that the user will watch during thecurrent binge watching session based on the average length of time.

In some embodiments, the average number of episodes the user watches inone binge watching session may be more than the multiple next episodesof the program series the user has not watched. In some embodiments, themedia guidance application may extract, from the data structure, a fifthindicator of the multiple indicators corresponding to the programseries. The fifth indicator may indicate a related program series theuser has not watched. In some embodiments, the media guidanceapplication may determine a third number of episodes of the relatedprogram series that the user will watch based on the difference betweenthe average number of episodes the user watches in one session and themultiple next episodes of the program series the user has not watched.In some embodiments, the media guidance application may select a secondsubset of multiple episodes of the related program series based on thethird number of episodes of the related program series that the userwill watch. In some embodiments, the media guidance application maycreate the virtual content source including the first subset of themultiple next episodes of the program series and the second subset ofthe multiple episodes of the related program series. The first subset ofthe multiple next episodes of the program series and the second subsetof the multiple episodes of the related program series may be presentedin sequence. The first subset of the multiple next episodes of theprogram series may be presented first.

The media guidance application may receive a user selection of a mediaasset.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine astart time of the media asset. In some embodiments, the media guidanceapplication may extract, from a data structure, a second indicator ofthe multiple indicators corresponding to the media asset. In someembodiments, the second indicator may indicate a start time of the mediaasset.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine alength of time between a current time and the start time of the mediaasset.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine anumber of episodes of the program series the user can watch in thelength of time before the start time of the media asset. In someembodiments, the media guidance application may extract, from a datastructure, a third indicator of the multiple indicators corresponding tothe program series. In some embodiments, the third indicator mayindicate an average length of each of the multiple next episodes of theprogram series the user has not watched. In some embodiments, the mediaguidance application may determine a number of episodes of the programseries the user can watch in the length of time before the start time ofthe media asset based on the average length of each of the multiple nextepisodes of the program series the user has not watched.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may select a subsetof the multiple episodes of the program series that the user has notwatched based on the number of episodes the user can watch.

In some embodiments, the number of episodes the user can watch in thelength of time is greater than the multiple next episodes of the programseries that the user has not watched. In some embodiments, the mediaguidance application may extract, from the data structure, a fourthindicator of the multiple indicators corresponding to the programseries. In some embodiments, the fourth indicator may indicate a relatedprogram series the user has not watched. In some embodiments, the mediaguidance application may select a second subset of multiple episodes ofthe related program series based on the number of episodes of theprogram series the user can watch in the length of time and the multiplenext episodes of the program series the user has not watched. In someembodiments, the media guidance application may create the virtualcontent source including the subset of the multiple next episodes of theprogram series and the second subset of the multiple episodes of therelated program series. In some embodiments, the subset of the multiplenext episodes of the program series and the second subset of themultiple episodes of the related program series are presented insequence. In some embodiments, the subset of the multiple next episodesof the program series is presented first.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may create thevirtual content source including the media asset the user will watch atthe start time. In some embodiments, the subset of the multiple nextepisodes of the program series and the media asset the user will watchat the start time are presented in sequence. In some embodiments, thesubset of the multiple next episodes of the program series is presentedfirst.

In some embodiments, the media asset corresponds to an episode of arelated program series related to the program series. In someembodiments, the media guidance application may create the virtualcontent source including a recent episode of the related program series.In some embodiments, the subset of the multiple next episodes of theprogram series and the recent episodes of the related program series arepresented in sequence. In some embodiments, the subset of the multiplenext episodes of the program series is presented first.

It should be noted the systems and/or methods described above may beapplied to, or used in accordance with, other systems, methods and/orapparatuses.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other objects and advantages of the disclosure will beapparent upon consideration of the following detailed description, takenin conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like referencecharacters refer to like parts throughout, and in which:

FIG. 1 shows an illustrative example of a display screen for use inaccessing media content in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure;

FIG. 2 shows another illustrative example of a display screen used inaccessing media content in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure;

FIG. 3 shows another illustrative example of a display screen used inaccessing media content in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an illustrative user equipment device inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of an illustrative media system in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 6 shows another illustrative example of a display screen used inaccessing media content in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 9 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 10 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 11 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure;

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Accordingly, systems and methods are described herein ensuring that auser will be able to visualize and consume multiple episodes of a seriesusing a virtual channel. In particular, a media guidance applicationdescribed herein presents, in an interactive program guide, a virtualcontent source for binge watching a program series. For example, if auser binge watched the first three episodes of Game of Thrones in onesession, then a virtual content source will be presented in theinteractive program guide including the next three episodes of Game ofThrones.

FIG. 1 shows illustrative display screens that may be used to present,in an interactive program guide, a virtual content source for bingewatching a program series. The display screen shown in FIG. 1 may beimplemented on any suitable user equipment device or platform. While thedisplay of FIG. 1 is illustrated as a full screen display, it may alsobe fully or partially overlaid over content being displayed. A user mayindicate a desire to access content information by selecting aselectable option provided in a display screen (e.g., a menu option, alistings option, an icon, a hyperlink, etc.) or pressing a dedicatedbutton (e.g., a GUIDE button) on a remote control or other user inputinterface or device. In response to the user's indication, the mediaguidance application may provide a display screen with media guidancedata organized in one of several ways, such as by time and channel in agrid, by time, by channel, by source, by content type, by category(e.g., movies, sports, news, children, or other categories ofprogramming), or other predefined, user-defined, or other organizationcriteria.

FIG. 1 shows illustrative grid of a program listings display 100arranged by time and channel that also enables access to different typesof content in a single display. Display 100 may include grid 102 with:(1) a column of channel/content type identifiers 104, where eachchannel/content type identifier (which is a cell in the column)identifies a different channel or content type available; and (2) a rowof time identifiers 106, where each time identifier (which is a cell inthe row) identifies a time block of programming. Grid 102 also includescells of program listings, such as program listing 108, where eachlisting provides the title of the program provided on the listing'sassociated channel and time. With a user input device, a user can selectprogram listings by moving highlight region 110. Information relating tothe program listing selected by highlight region 110 may be provided inprogram information region 112. Region 112 may include, for example, theprogram title, the program description, the time the program is provided(if applicable), the channel the program is on (if applicable), theprogram's rating, and other desired information.

Grid 102 may provide media guidance data for non-linear programmingincluding on-demand listing 114, recorded content listing 116, Internetcontent listing 118, and virtual content source 124. A display combiningmedia guidance data for content from different types of content sourcesis sometimes referred to as a “mixed-media” display. Variouspermutations of the types of media guidance data that may be displayedthat are different than display 100 may be based on user selection orguidance application definition (e.g., a display of only recorded andbroadcast listings, only on-demand and broadcast listings, etc.). Asillustrated, listings 114, 116, 118, and 124 are shown as spanning theentire time block displayed in grid 102 to indicate that selection ofthese listings may provide access to a display dedicated to on-demandlistings, recorded listings, or Internet listings, respectively. In someembodiments, listings for these content types may be included directlyin grid 102. Additional media guidance data may be displayed in responseto the user selecting one of the navigational icons 120. (Pressing anarrow key on a user input device may affect the display in a similarmanner as selecting navigational icons 120.)

Virtual content source 124 may include episodes of a program series theuser is binge watching. The media guidance application may determine aprogram series a user has started watching. The determination of theprogram series may be performed by retrieving, from a database, a datastructure, wherein the data structure comprises multiple indicators. Thedatabase and data structure are further described in the detaileddescription of FIG. 8. In some embodiments, the media guidanceapplication may extract, from the data structure, a first indicator ofthe multiple indicators corresponding to a program series, wherein thefirst indicator indicates a number of episodes of the program series theuser has watched.

The media guidance application may predict a number of episodes of theprogram series that the user will binge watch based on tracking anaverage number of episodes the user binge watches. The prediction of thenumber of episodes of the program series that the user will binge watchmay be performed by extracting, from the data structure, a secondindicator of the multiple indicators corresponding to the programseries. The second indicator may indicate a first number of bingewatching sessions during which the user has watched at least one episodeof the program series. In some embodiments, the media guidanceapplication may calculate an average number of episodes the user watchesin one binge watching session based on the number of episodes of theprogram series the user has watched and the first number of bingewatching sessions during which the user has watched at least one episodeof the program series. In some embodiments, the media guidanceapplication may determine a predicted second number of episodes of theprogram series that the user will watch during a current binge watchingsession based on the average number of episodes the user watches in onebinge watching session.

The media guidance application may determine multiple episodes of theprogram series that the user has not watched. In some embodiments, themedia guidance application may determine, based on the first indicatorof the multiple indicators corresponding to the program series, multiplenext episodes of the program series the user has not watched. The mediaguidance application may select a subset of the multiple episodes of theprogram series that the user has not watched based on the predictednumber of episodes of the program series.

The media guidance application may determine how many episodes the usermay want to watch based on the time of day or day of the week. Forexample, if it is a week day and the user has to go to work the nextmorning, the media guidance application may predict that the user willwant to watch only the episodes that the user can watch before they wantto go to sleep. The media guidance application may determine how manyepisodes the user may want to watch based on the amount of timeavailable in the user's schedule.

The media guidance application may determine how many episodes the usermay want to watch based on an established pattern of watching abroadcast program at a specific time. For example, if the user watchesthe late night local news program every night, the media guidanceapplication may predict that the user will want to watch only theepisodes that the user can watch before the start time of the late nightlocal news program.

The media guidance application may create virtual content source 124including the subset of the multiple episodes of the program series thatthe user has not watched. In some embodiments, the media guidanceapplication may create virtual content source 124 by retrieving thesubset of the multiple next episodes of the program series from multiplecontent sources. In some embodiments, the multiple content sources maycomprise broadcast, on-demand, recorded, and streaming video contentsources. The media guidance application may auto play the next episodeswithout any user intervention.

Display 100 may also include virtual channel 124 simultaneously withmultiple media asset indicators corresponding to at least one othercontent source. The media guidance application may present a virtualchannel including episodes of multiple program series. The mediaguidance application may determine which episodes of the multipleprogram series to include based on the amount of time available in theuser's schedule. For example, if the user has ninety minutes availablein their schedule, the media guidance application may select a sixtyminute episode of a program series and a thirty minute episode of adifferent program series.

Virtual channels offer the user a convenient way of visualizing mediaassets from various sources of content. The media guidance applicationmay generate a virtual channel 124 based on a particular content source,a particular program series, or user preferences. The media guidanceapplication may generate a virtual channel 124 composed of content thatmay not be broadcast content. For example, a channel that is created formedia content that has been recorded may be considered a virtualchannel.

Virtual channels may also be generated based on a user's past behaviorpatterns or moods. For example, if the user has a pattern of bingewatching a particular program series when the user is angry, the virtualchannel may be generated based on episodes of that particular programseries. The media guidance application may present multiple virtualchannels 124 that correspond to different behavior patterns or moods.

Virtual channels may also be generated based on recommended programseries. Virtual channels may also be generated based on a particulargenre. For example, a virtual channel 124 may be generated for sci-fimovies. Virtual channels may also be generated based on program type.For example, a virtual channel 124 may be generated for reality shows.Virtual channels may also be generated based on a particular targetaudience. For example, a virtual channel 124 may be generated forchildren. Virtual channels may also be generated based on the viewinghistory. For example, a virtual channel 124 may be generated includingthe user's favorite shows presented in the user's typical viewing order.

Display 100 may also include video region 122, and options region 126.Video region 122 may allow the user to view and/or preview programs thatare currently available, will be available, or were available to theuser. The content of video region 122 may correspond to, or beindependent from, one of the listings displayed in grid 102. Griddisplays including a video region are sometimes referred to aspicture-in-guide (PIG) displays.

Options region 126 may allow the user to access different types ofcontent, media guidance application displays, and/or media guidanceapplication features. Options region 126 may be part of display 100 (andother display screens described herein), or may be invoked by a user byselecting an on-screen option or pressing a dedicated or assignablebutton on a user input device. The selectable options within optionsregion 126 may concern features related to program listings in grid 102or may include options available from a main menu display. Featuresrelated to program listings may include searching for other air times orways of receiving a program, recording a program, enabling seriesrecording of a program, setting program and/or channel as a favorite,purchasing a program, or other features. Options available from a mainmenu display may include search options, VOD options, parental controloptions, Internet options, cloud-based options, device synchronizationoptions, second screen device options, options to access various typesof media guidance data displays, options to subscribe to a premiumservice, options to edit a user's profile, options to access a browseoverlay, or other options.

The amount of content available to users in any given content deliverysystem can be substantial. Consequently, many users desire a form ofmedia guidance through an interface that allows users to efficientlynavigate content selections and easily identify content that they maydesire. An application that provides such guidance is referred to hereinas an interactive media guidance application or, sometimes, a mediaguidance application or a guidance application.

Interactive media guidance applications may take various forms dependingon the content for which they provide guidance. One typical type ofmedia guidance application is an interactive television program guide.Interactive television program guides (sometimes referred to aselectronic program guides) are well-known guidance applications that,among other things, allow users to navigate among and locate many typesof content or media assets. Interactive media guidance applications maygenerate graphical user interface screens that enable a user to navigateamong, locate and select content. As referred to herein, the terms“media asset” and “content” should be understood to mean anelectronically consumable user asset, such as television programming, aswell as pay-per-view programs, on-demand programs (as in video-on-demand(VOD) systems), Internet content (e.g., streaming content, downloadablecontent, Webcasts, etc.), video clips, audio, content information,pictures, rotating images, documents, playlists, websites, articles,books, electronic books, blogs, chat sessions, social media,applications, games, and/or any other media or multimedia and/orcombination of the same. Guidance applications also allow users tonavigate among and locate content. As referred to herein, the term“multimedia” should be understood to mean content that utilizes at leasttwo different content forms described above, for example, text, audio,images, video, or interactivity content forms. Content may be recorded,played, displayed or accessed by user equipment devices, but can also bepart of a live performance.

The media guidance application and/or any instructions for performingany of the embodiments discussed herein may be encoded on computerreadable media. Computer readable media includes any media capable ofstoring data. The computer readable media may be transitory, including,but not limited to, propagating electrical or electromagnetic signals,or may be non-transitory including, but not limited to, volatile andnon-volatile computer memory or storage devices such as a hard disk,floppy disk, USB drive, DVD, CD, media cards, register memory, processorcaches, Random Access Memory (“RAM”), etc.

With the advent of the Internet, mobile computing, and high-speedwireless networks, users are accessing media on user equipment deviceson which they traditionally did not. As referred to herein, the phrase“user equipment device,” “user equipment,” “user device,” “electronicdevice,” “electronic equipment,” “media equipment device,” or “mediadevice” should be understood to mean any device for accessing thecontent described above, such as a television, a Smart TV, a set-topbox, an integrated receiver decoder (IRD) for handling satellitetelevision, a digital storage device, a digital media receiver (DMR), adigital media adapter (DMA), a streaming media device, a DVD player, aDVD recorder, a connected DVD, a local media server, a BLU-RAY player, aBLU-RAY recorder, a personal computer (PC), a laptop computer, a tabletcomputer, a WebTV box, a personal computer television (PC/TV), a PCmedia server, a PC media center, a hand-held computer, a stationarytelephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile telephone, aportable video player, a portable music player, a portable gamingmachine, a smart phone, or any other television equipment, computingequipment, or wireless device, and/or combination of the same. In someembodiments, the user equipment device may have a front facing screenand a rear facing screen, multiple front screens, or multiple angledscreens. In some embodiments, the user equipment device may have a frontfacing camera and/or a rear facing camera. On these user equipmentdevices, users may be able to navigate among and locate the same contentavailable through a television. Consequently, media guidance may beavailable on these devices, as well. The guidance provided may be forcontent available only through a television, for content available onlythrough one or more of other types of user equipment devices, or forcontent available both through a television and one or more of the othertypes of user equipment devices. The media guidance applications may beprovided as on-line applications (i.e., provided on a web-site), or asstand-alone applications or clients on user equipment devices. Variousdevices and platforms that may implement media guidance applications aredescribed in more detail below.

One of the functions of the media guidance application is to providemedia guidance data to users. As referred to herein, the phrase “mediaguidance data” or “guidance data” should be understood to mean any datarelated to content or data used in operating the guidance application.For example, the guidance data may include program information, guidanceapplication settings, user preferences, user profile information, medialistings, media-related information (e.g., broadcast times, broadcastchannels, titles, descriptions, ratings information (e.g., parentalcontrol ratings, critic's ratings, etc.), genre or category information,actor information, logo data for broadcasters' or providers' logos,etc.), media format (e.g., standard definition, high definition, 3D,etc.), on-demand information, blogs, websites, and any other type ofguidance data that is helpful for a user to navigate among and locatedesired content selections.

FIGS. 2-3 show illustrative display screens that may be used to providemedia guidance data. The display screens shown in FIGS. 2-3 may beimplemented on any suitable user equipment device or platform. While thedisplays of FIGS. 2-3 are illustrated as full screen displays, they mayalso be fully or partially overlaid over content being displayed. A usermay indicate a desire to access content information by selecting aselectable option provided in a display screen (e.g., a menu option, alistings option, an icon, a hyperlink, etc.) or pressing a dedicatedbutton (e.g., a GUIDE button) on a remote control or other user inputinterface or device. In response to the user's indication, the mediaguidance application may provide a display screen with media guidancedata organized in one of several ways, such as by time and channel in agrid, by time, by channel, by source, by content type, by category(e.g., movies, sports, news, children, or other categories ofprogramming), or other predefined, user-defined, or other organizationcriteria.

FIG. 2 shows illustrative grid of a program listings display 200arranged by time and channel that also enables access to different typesof content in a single display. Display 200 may include grid 202 with:(1) a column of channel/content type identifiers 204, where eachchannel/content type identifier (which is a cell in the column)identifies a different channel or content type available; and (2) a rowof time identifiers 206, where each time identifier (which is a cell inthe row) identifies a time block of programming. Grid 202 also includescells of program listings, such as program listing 208, where eachlisting provides the title of the program provided on the listing'sassociated channel and time. With a user input device, a user can selectprogram listings by moving highlight region 210. Information relating tothe program listing selected by highlight region 210 may be provided inprogram information region 212. Region 212 may include, for example, theprogram title, the program description, the time the program is provided(if applicable), the channel the program is on (if applicable), theprogram's rating, and other desired information.

In addition to providing access to linear programming (e.g., contentthat is scheduled to be transmitted to multiple user equipment devicesat a predetermined time and is provided according to a schedule), themedia guidance application also provides access to non-linearprogramming (e.g., content accessible to a user equipment device at anytime and is not provided according to a schedule). Non-linearprogramming may include content from different content sources includingon-demand content (e.g., VOD), Internet content (e.g., streaming media,downloadable media, etc.), locally stored content (e.g., content storedon any user equipment device described above or other storage device),or other time-independent content. On-demand content may include moviesor any other content provided by a particular content provider (e.g.,HBO On Demand providing “The Sopranos” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm”). HBOON DEMAND is a service mark owned by Time Warner Company L. P. et al.and THE SOPRANOS and CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM are trademarks owned by theHome Box Office, Inc. Internet content may include web events, such as achat session or Webcast, or content available on-demand as streamingcontent or downloadable content through an Internet web site or otherInternet access (e.g. FTP).

Grid 202 may provide media guidance data for non-linear programmingincluding on-demand listing 214, recorded content listing 216, andInternet content listing 218. A display combining media guidance datafor content from different types of content sources is sometimesreferred to as a “mixed-media” display. Various permutations of thetypes of media guidance data that may be displayed that are differentthan display 200 may be based on user selection or guidance applicationdefinition (e.g., a display of only recorded and broadcast listings,only on-demand and broadcast listings, etc.). As illustrated, listings214, 216, and 218 are shown as spanning the entire time block displayedin grid 202 to indicate that selection of these listings may provideaccess to a display dedicated to on-demand listings, recorded listings,or Internet listings, respectively. In some embodiments, listings forthese content types may be included directly in grid 202. Additionalmedia guidance data may be displayed in response to the user selectingone of the navigational icons 220. (Pressing an arrow key on a userinput device may affect the display in a similar manner as selectingnavigational icons 220.)

Display 200 may also include video region 222, and options region 226.Video region 222 may allow the user to view and/or preview programs thatare currently available, will be available, or were available to theuser. The content of video region 222 may correspond to, or beindependent from, one of the listings displayed in grid 202. Griddisplays including a video region are sometimes referred to aspicture-in-guide (PIG) displays. PIG displays and their functionalitiesare described in greater detail in Satterfield et al. U.S. Pat. No.6,564,378, issued May 13, 2003 and Yuen et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,239,794,issued May 29, 2001, which are hereby incorporated by reference hereinin their entireties. PIG displays may be included in other mediaguidance application display screens of the embodiments describedherein.

Options region 226 may allow the user to access different types ofcontent, media guidance application displays, and/or media guidanceapplication features. Options region 226 may be part of display 200 (andother display screens described herein), or may be invoked by a user byselecting an on-screen option or pressing a dedicated or assignablebutton on a user input device. The selectable options within optionsregion 226 may concern features related to program listings in grid 202or may include options available from a main menu display. Featuresrelated to program listings may include searching for other air times orways of receiving a program, recording a program, enabling seriesrecording of a program, setting program and/or channel as a favorite,purchasing a program, or other features. Options available from a mainmenu display may include search options, VOD options, parental controloptions, Internet options, cloud-based options, device synchronizationoptions, second screen device options, options to access various typesof media guidance data displays, options to subscribe to a premiumservice, options to edit a user's profile, options to access a browseoverlay, or other options.

The media guidance application may be personalized based on a user'spreferences. A personalized media guidance application allows a user tocustomize displays and features to create a personalized “experience”with the media guidance application. This personalized experience may becreated by allowing a user to input these customizations and/or by themedia guidance application monitoring user activity to determine varioususer preferences. Users may access their personalized guidanceapplication by logging in or otherwise identifying themselves to theguidance application. Customization of the media guidance applicationmay be made in accordance with a user profile. The customizations mayinclude varying presentation schemes (e.g., color scheme of displays,font size of text, etc.), aspects of content listings displayed (e.g.,only HDTV or only 3D programming, user-specified broadcast channelsbased on favorite channel selections, re-ordering the display ofchannels, recommended content, etc.), desired recording features (e.g.,recording or series recordings for particular users, recording quality,etc.), parental control settings, customized presentation of Internetcontent (e.g., presentation of social media content, e-mail,electronically delivered articles, etc.) and other desiredcustomizations.

The media guidance application may allow a user to provide user profileinformation or may automatically compile user profile information. Themedia guidance application may, for example, monitor the content theuser accesses and/or other interactions the user may have with theguidance application. Additionally, the media guidance application mayobtain all or part of other user profiles that are related to aparticular user (e.g., from other web sites on the Internet the useraccesses, such as www.Tivo.com, from other media guidance applicationsthe user accesses, from other interactive applications the useraccesses, from another user equipment device of the user, etc.), and/orobtain information about the user from other sources that the mediaguidance application may access. As a result, a user can be providedwith a unified guidance application experience across the user'sdifferent user equipment devices. This type of user experience isdescribed in greater detail below in connection with FIG. 5. Additionalpersonalized media guidance application features are described ingreater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No.2005/0251827, filed Jul. 11, 2005, Boyer et al., U.S. Pat. No.7,165,098, issued Jan. 16, 2007, and Ellis et al., U.S. PatentApplication Publication No. 2002/0174430, filed Feb. 21, 2002, which arehereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties.

Another display arrangement for providing media guidance is shown inFIG. 3. Video mosaic display 300 includes selectable options 302 forcontent information organized based on content type, genre, and/or otherorganization criteria. In display 300, television listings option 304 isselected, thus providing listings 306, 308, 310, and 312 as broadcastprogram listings. In display 300 the listings may provide graphicalimages including cover art, still images from the content, video clippreviews, live video from the content, or other types of content thatindicate to a user the content being described by the media guidancedata in the listing. Each of the graphical listings may also beaccompanied by text to provide further information about the contentassociated with the listing. For example, listing 308 may include morethan one portion, including media portion 314 and text portion 316.Media portion 314 and/or text portion 316 may be selectable to viewcontent in full-screen or to view information related to the contentdisplayed in media portion 314 (e.g., to view listings for the channelthat the video is displayed on).

The listings in display 300 are of different sizes (i.e., listing 306 islarger than listings 308, 310, and 312), but if desired, all thelistings may be the same size. Listings may be of different sizes orgraphically accentuated to indicate degrees of interest to the user orto emphasize certain content, as desired by the content provider orbased on user preferences. Various systems and methods for graphicallyaccentuating content listings are discussed in, for example, Yates, U.S.Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0153885, filed Nov. 12, 2009,which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Users may access content and the media guidance application (and itsdisplay screens described above and below) from one or more of theiruser equipment devices. FIG. 4 shows a generalized embodiment ofillustrative user equipment device 400. More specific implementations ofuser equipment devices are discussed below in connection with FIG. 5.User equipment device 400 may receive content and data via input/output(hereinafter “I/O”) path 402. I/O path 402 may provide content (e.g.,broadcast programming, on-demand programming, Internet content, contentavailable over a local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN),and/or other content) and data to control circuitry 404, which includesprocessing circuitry 406 and storage 408. Control circuitry 404 may beused to send and receive commands, requests, and other suitable datausing I/O path 402. I/O path 402 may connect control circuitry 404 (andspecifically processing circuitry 406) to one or more communicationspaths (described below). I/O functions may be provided by one or more ofthese communications paths, but are shown as a single path in FIG. 4 toavoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Control circuitry 404 may be based on any suitable processing circuitrysuch as processing circuitry 406. As referred to herein, processingcircuitry should be understood to mean circuitry based on one or moremicroprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors,programmable logic devices, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs),application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), etc., and may includea multi-core processor (e.g., dual-core, quad-core, hexa-core, or anysuitable number of cores) or supercomputer. In some embodiments,processing circuitry may be distributed across multiple separateprocessors or processing units, for example, multiple of the same typeof processing units (e.g., two Intel Core i7 processors) or multipledifferent processors (e.g., an Intel Core i5 processor and an Intel Corei7 processor). In some embodiments, control circuitry 404 executesinstructions for a media guidance application stored in memory (i.e.,storage 408). Specifically, control circuitry 404 may be instructed bythe media guidance application to perform the functions discussed aboveand below. For example, the media guidance application may provideinstructions to control circuitry 404 to generate the media guidancedisplays. In some implementations, any action performed by controlcircuitry 404 may be based on instructions received from the mediaguidance application.

In client-server based embodiments, control circuitry 404 may includecommunications circuitry suitable for communicating with a guidanceapplication server or other networks or servers. The instructions forcarrying out the above mentioned functionality may be stored on theguidance application server. Communications circuitry may include acable modem, an integrated services digital network (ISDN) modem, adigital subscriber line (DSL) modem, a telephone modem, Ethernet card,or a wireless modem for communications with other equipment, or anyother suitable communications circuitry. Such communications may involvethe Internet or any other suitable communications networks or paths(which is described in more detail in connection with FIG. 5). Inaddition, communications circuitry may include circuitry that enablespeer-to-peer communication of user equipment devices, or communicationof user equipment devices in locations remote from each other (describedin more detail below).

Memory may be an electronic storage device provided as storage 408 thatis part of control circuitry 404. As referred to herein, the phrase“electronic storage device” or “storage device” should be understood tomean any device for storing electronic data, computer software, orfirmware, such as random-access memory, read-only memory, hard drives,optical drives, digital video disc (DVD) recorders, compact disc (CD)recorders, BLU-RAY disc (BD) recorders, BLU-RAY 3D disc recorders,digital video recorders (DVR, sometimes called a personal videorecorder, or PVR), solid state devices, quantum storage devices, gamingconsoles, gaming media, or any other suitable fixed or removable storagedevices, and/or any combination of the same. Storage 408 may be used tostore various types of content described herein as well as mediaguidance data described above. Nonvolatile memory may also be used(e.g., to launch a boot-up routine and other instructions). Cloud-basedstorage, described in relation to FIG. 5, may be used to supplementstorage 308 or instead of storage 408.

Control circuitry 404 may include video generating circuitry and tuningcircuitry, such as one or more analog tuners, one or more MPEG-2decoders or other digital decoding circuitry, high-definition tuners, orany other suitable tuning or video circuits or combinations of suchcircuits. Encoding circuitry (e.g., for converting over-the-air, analog,or digital signals to MPEG signals for storage) may also be provided.Control circuitry 404 may also include scaler circuitry for upconvertingand downconverting content into the preferred output format of the userequipment 400. Circuitry 404 may also include digital-to-analogconverter circuitry and analog-to-digital converter circuitry forconverting between digital and analog signals. The tuning and encodingcircuitry may be used by the user equipment device to receive and todisplay, to play, or to record content. The tuning and encodingcircuitry may also be used to receive guidance data. The circuitrydescribed herein, including for example, the tuning, video generating,encoding, decoding, encrypting, decrypting, scaler, and analog/digitalcircuitry, may be implemented using software running on one or moregeneral purpose or specialized processors. Multiple tuners may beprovided to handle simultaneous tuning functions (e.g., watch and recordfunctions, picture-in-picture (PIP) functions, multiple-tuner recording,etc.). If storage 408 is provided as a separate device from userequipment 400, the tuning and encoding circuitry (including multipletuners) may be associated with storage 408.

A user may send instructions to control circuitry 404 using user inputinterface 410. User input interface 410 may be any suitable userinterface, such as a remote control, mouse, trackball, keypad, keyboard,touch screen, touchpad, stylus input, joystick, voice recognitioninterface, or other user input interfaces. Display 412 may be providedas a stand-alone device or integrated with other elements of userequipment device 400. For example, display 412 may be a touchscreen ortouch-sensitive display. In such circumstances, user input interface 410may be integrated with or combined with display 412. Display 412 may beone or more of a monitor, a television, a liquid crystal display (LCD)for a mobile device, amorphous silicon display, low temperature polysilicon display, electronic ink display, electrophoretic display, activematrix display, electro-wetting display, electrofluidic display, cathoderay tube display, light-emitting diode display, electroluminescentdisplay, plasma display panel, high-performance addressing display,thin-film transistor display, organic light-emitting diode display,surface-conduction electron-emitter display (SED), laser television,carbon nanotubes, quantum dot display, interferometric modulatordisplay, or any other suitable equipment for displaying visual images.In some embodiments, display 412 may be HDTV-capable. In someembodiments, display 412 may be a 3D display, and the interactive mediaguidance application and any suitable content may be displayed in 3D. Avideo card or graphics card may generate the output to the display 412.The video card may offer various functions such as accelerated renderingof 3D scenes and 2D graphics, MPEG-2/MPEG-4 decoding, TV output, or theability to connect multiple monitors. The video card may be anyprocessing circuitry described above in relation to control circuitry404. The video card may be integrated with the control circuitry 404.Speakers 414 may be provided as integrated with other elements of userequipment device 400 or may be stand-alone units. The audio component ofvideos and other content displayed on display 412 may be played throughspeakers 414. In some embodiments, the audio may be distributed to areceiver (not shown), which processes and outputs the audio via speakers414.

The guidance application may be implemented using any suitablearchitecture. For example, it may be a stand-alone applicationwholly-implemented on user equipment device 400. In such an approach,instructions of the application are stored locally (e.g., in storage408), and data for use by the application is downloaded on a periodicbasis (e.g., from an out-of-band feed, from an Internet resource, orusing another suitable approach). Control circuitry 404 may retrieveinstructions of the application from storage 408 and process theinstructions to generate any of the displays discussed herein. Based onthe processed instructions, control circuitry 404 may determine whataction to perform when input is received from input interface 410. Forexample, movement of a cursor on a display up/down may be indicated bythe processed instructions when input interface 410 indicates that anup/down button was selected.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application is a client-serverbased application. Data for use by a thick or thin client implemented onuser equipment device 400 is retrieved on-demand by issuing requests toa server remote to the user equipment device 400. In one example of aclient-server based guidance application, control circuitry 404 runs aweb browser that interprets web pages provided by a remote server. Forexample, the remote server may store the instructions for theapplication in a storage device. The remote server may process thestored instructions using circuitry (e.g., control circuitry 404) andgenerate the displays discussed above and below. The client device mayreceive the displays generated by the remote server and may display thecontent of the displays locally on equipment device 400. This way, theprocessing of the instructions is performed remotely by the server whilethe resulting displays are provided locally on equipment device 400.Equipment device 400 may receive inputs from the user via inputinterface 410 and transmit those inputs to the remote server forprocessing and generating the corresponding displays. For example,equipment device 400 may transmit a communication to the remote serverindicating that an up/down button was selected via input interface 410.The remote server may process instructions in accordance with that inputand generate a display of the application corresponding to the input(e.g., a display that moves a cursor up/down). The generated display isthen transmitted to equipment device 400 for presentation to the user.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application is downloaded andinterpreted or otherwise run by an interpreter or virtual machine (runby control circuitry 404). In some embodiments, the guidance applicationmay be encoded in the ETV Binary Interchange Format (EBIF), received bycontrol circuitry 404 as part of a suitable feed, and interpreted by auser agent running on control circuitry 404. For example, the guidanceapplication may be an EBIF application. In some embodiments, theguidance application may be defined by a series of JAVA-based files thatare received and run by a local virtual machine or other suitablemiddleware executed by control circuitry 404. In some of suchembodiments (e.g., those employing MPEG-2 or other digital mediaencoding schemes), the guidance application may be, for example, encodedand transmitted in an MPEG-2 object carousel with the MPEG audio andvideo packets of a program.

User equipment device 400 of FIG. 4 can be implemented in system 500 ofFIG. 5 as user television equipment 502, user computer equipment 504,wireless user communications device 506, or any other type of userequipment suitable for accessing content, such as a non-portable gamingmachine. For simplicity, these devices may be referred to hereincollectively as user equipment or user equipment devices, and may besubstantially similar to user equipment devices described above. Userequipment devices, on which a media guidance application may beimplemented, may function as a standalone device or may be part of anetwork of devices. Various network configurations of devices may beimplemented and are discussed in more detail below.

A user equipment device utilizing at least some of the system featuresdescribed above in connection with FIG. 4 may not be classified solelyas user television equipment 502, user computer equipment 504, or awireless user communications device 506. For example, user televisionequipment 502 may, like some user computer equipment 504, beInternet-enabled allowing for access to Internet content, while usercomputer equipment 504 may, like some television equipment 502, includea tuner allowing for access to television programming. The mediaguidance application may have the same layout on various different typesof user equipment or may be tailored to the display capabilities of theuser equipment. For example, on user computer equipment 504, theguidance application may be provided as a web site accessed by a webbrowser. In another example, the guidance application may be scaled downfor wireless user communications devices 506.

In system 500, there is typically more than one of each type of userequipment device but only one of each is shown in FIG. 5 to avoidovercomplicating the drawing. In addition, each user may utilize morethan one type of user equipment device and also more than one of eachtype of user equipment device.

In some embodiments, a user equipment device (e.g., user televisionequipment 502, user computer equipment 504, wireless user communicationsdevice 506) may be referred to as a “second screen device.” For example,a second screen device may supplement content presented on a first userequipment device. The content presented on the second screen device maybe any suitable content that supplements the content presented on thefirst device. In some embodiments, the second screen device provides aninterface for adjusting settings and display preferences of the firstdevice. In some embodiments, the second screen device is configured forinteracting with other second screen devices or for interacting with asocial network. The second screen device can be located in the same roomas the first device, a different room from the first device but in thesame house or building, or in a different building from the firstdevice.

The user may also set various settings to maintain consistent mediaguidance application settings across in-home devices and remote devices.Settings include those described herein, as well as channel and programfavorites, programming preferences that the guidance applicationutilizes to make programming recommendations, display preferences, andother desirable guidance settings. For example, if a user sets a channelas a favorite on, for example, the web site www.Tivo.com on theirpersonal computer at their office, the same channel would appear as afavorite on the user's in-home devices (e.g., user television equipmentand user computer equipment) as well as the user's mobile devices, ifdesired. Therefore, changes made on one user equipment device can changethe guidance experience on another user equipment device, regardless ofwhether they are the same or a different type of user equipment device.In addition, the changes made may be based on settings input by a user,as well as user activity monitored by the guidance application.

The user equipment devices may be coupled to communications network 514.Namely, user television equipment 502, user computer equipment 504, andwireless user communications device 506 are coupled to communicationsnetwork 514 via communications paths 508, 510, and 512, respectively.Communications network 514 may be one or more networks including theInternet, a mobile phone network, mobile voice or data network (e.g., a4G or LTE network), cable network, public switched telephone network, orother types of communications network or combinations of communicationsnetworks. Paths 508, 510, and 512 may separately or together include oneor more communications paths, such as, a satellite path, a fiber-opticpath, a cable path, a path that supports Internet communications (e.g.,IPTV), free-space connections (e.g., for broadcast or other wirelesssignals), or any other suitable wired or wireless communications path orcombination of such paths. Path 512 is drawn with dotted lines toindicate that in the exemplary embodiment shown in FIG. 5 it is awireless path and paths 508 and 510 are drawn as solid lines to indicatethey are wired paths (although these paths may be wireless paths, ifdesired). Communications with the user equipment devices may be providedby one or more of these communications paths, but are shown as a singlepath in FIG. 5 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Although communications paths are not drawn between user equipmentdevices, these devices may communicate directly with each other viacommunication paths, such as those described above in connection withpaths 508, 510, and 512, as well as other short-range point-to-pointcommunication paths, such as USB cables, IEEE 1394 cables, wirelesspaths (e.g., Bluetooth, infrared, IEEE 802-11x, etc.), or othershort-range communication via wired or wireless paths. BLUETOOTH is acertification mark owned by Bluetooth SIG, INC. The user equipmentdevices may also communicate with each other directly through anindirect path via communications network 514.

System 500 includes content source 516 and media guidance data source518 coupled to communications network 514 via communication paths 520and 522, respectively. Paths 520 and 522 may include any of thecommunication paths described above in connection with paths 508, 510,and 512. Communications with the content source 516 and media guidancedata source 518 may be exchanged over one or more communications paths,but are shown as a single path in FIG. 5 to avoid overcomplicating thedrawing. In addition, there may be more than one of each of contentsource 516 and media guidance data source 518, but only one of each isshown in FIG. 5 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing. (The differenttypes of each of these sources are discussed below.) If desired, contentsource 516 and media guidance data source 518 may be integrated as onesource device. Although communications between sources 516 and 518 withuser equipment devices 502, 504, and 506 are shown as throughcommunications network 514, in some embodiments, sources 516 and 518 maycommunicate directly with user equipment devices 502, 504, and 506 viacommunication paths (not shown) such as those described above inconnection with paths 508, 510, and 512.

Content source 516 may include one or more types of content distributionequipment including a television distribution facility, cable systemheadend, satellite distribution facility, programming sources (e.g.,television broadcasters, such as NBC, ABC, HBO, etc.), intermediatedistribution facilities and/or servers, Internet providers, on-demandmedia servers, and other content providers. NBC is a trademark owned bythe National Broadcasting Company, Inc., ABC is a trademark owned by theAmerican Broadcasting Company, Inc., and HBO is a trademark owned by theHome Box Office, Inc. Content source 516 may be the originator ofcontent (e.g., a television broadcaster, a Webcast provider, etc.) ormay not be the originator of content (e.g., an on-demand contentprovider, an Internet provider of content of broadcast programs fordownloading, etc.). Content source 516 may include cable sources,satellite providers, on-demand providers, Internet providers,over-the-top content providers, or other providers of content. Contentsource 516 may also include a remote media server used to storedifferent types of content (including video content selected by a user),in a location remote from any of the user equipment devices. Systems andmethods for remote storage of content, and providing remotely storedcontent to user equipment are discussed in greater detail in connectionwith Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,761,892, issued Jul. 20, 2010, whichis hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Media guidance data source 518 may provide media guidance data, such asthe media guidance data described above. Media guidance data may beprovided to the user equipment devices using any suitable approach. Insome embodiments, the guidance application may be a stand-aloneinteractive television program guide that receives program guide datavia a data feed (e.g., a continuous feed or trickle feed). Programschedule data and other guidance data may be provided to the userequipment on a television channel sideband, using an in-band digitalsignal, using an out-of-band digital signal, or by any other suitabledata transmission technique. Program schedule data and other mediaguidance data may be provided to user equipment on multiple analog ordigital television channels.

In some embodiments, guidance data from media guidance data source 518may be provided to users' equipment using a client-server approach. Forexample, a user equipment device may pull media guidance data from aserver, or a server may push media guidance data to a user equipmentdevice. In some embodiments, a guidance application client residing onthe user's equipment may initiate sessions with source 518 to obtainguidance data when needed, e.g., when the guidance data is out of dateor when the user equipment device receives a request from the user toreceive data. Media guidance may be provided to the user equipment withany suitable frequency (e.g., continuously, daily, a user-specifiedperiod of time, a system-specified period of time, in response to arequest from user equipment, etc.). Media guidance data source 518 mayprovide user equipment devices 502, 504, and 506 the media guidanceapplication itself or software updates for the media guidanceapplication.

In some embodiments, the media guidance data may include viewer data.For example, the viewer data may include current and/or historical useractivity information (e.g., what content the user typically watches,what times of day the user watches content, whether the user interactswith a social network, at what times the user interacts with a socialnetwork to post information, what types of content the user typicallywatches (e.g., pay TV or free TV), mood, brain activity information,etc.). The media guidance data may also include subscription data. Forexample, the subscription data may identify to which sources or servicesa given user subscribes and/or to which sources or services the givenuser has previously subscribed but later terminated access (e.g.,whether the user subscribes to premium channels, whether the user hasadded a premium level of services, whether the user has increasedInternet speed). In some embodiments, the viewer data and/or thesubscription data may identify patterns of a given user for a period ofmore than one year. The media guidance data may include a model (e.g., asurvivor model) used for generating a score that indicates a likelihooda given user will terminate access to a service/source. For example, themedia guidance application may process the viewer data with thesubscription data using the model to generate a value or score thatindicates a likelihood of whether the given user will terminate accessto a particular service or source. In particular, a higher score mayindicate a higher level of confidence that the user will terminateaccess to a particular service or source. Based on the score, the mediaguidance application may generate promotions that entice the user tokeep the particular service or source indicated by the score as one towhich the user will likely terminate access.

Media guidance applications may be, for example, stand-aloneapplications implemented on user equipment devices. For example, themedia guidance application may be implemented as software or a set ofexecutable instructions which may be stored in storage 308, and executedby control circuitry 404 of a user equipment device 400. In someembodiments, media guidance applications may be client-serverapplications where only a client application resides on the userequipment device, and server application resides on a remote server. Forexample, media guidance applications may be implemented partially as aclient application on control circuitry 404 of user equipment device 400and partially on a remote server as a server application (e.g., mediaguidance data source 518) running on control circuitry of the remoteserver. When executed by control circuitry of the remote server (such asmedia guidance data source 518), the media guidance application mayinstruct the control circuitry to generate the guidance applicationdisplays and transmit the generated displays to the user equipmentdevices. The server application may instruct the control circuitry ofthe media guidance data source 518 to transmit data for storage on theuser equipment. The client application may instruct control circuitry ofthe receiving user equipment to generate the guidance applicationdisplays.

Content and/or media guidance data delivered to user equipment devices502, 504, and 506 may be over-the-top (OTT) content. OTT contentdelivery allows Internet-enabled user devices, including any userequipment device described above, to receive content that is transferredover the Internet, including any content described above, in addition tocontent received over cable or satellite connections. OTT content isdelivered via an Internet connection provided by an Internet serviceprovider (ISP), but a third party distributes the content. The ISP maynot be responsible for the viewing abilities, copyrights, orredistribution of the content, and may only transfer IP packets providedby the OTT content provider. Examples of OTT content providers includeYOUTUBE, NETFLIX, and HULU, which provide audio and video via IPpackets. Youtube is a trademark owned by Google Inc., Netflix is atrademark owned by Netflix Inc., and Hulu is a trademark owned by Hulu,LLC. OTT content providers may additionally or alternatively providemedia guidance data described above. In addition to content and/or mediaguidance data, providers of OTT content can distribute media guidanceapplications (e.g., web-based applications or cloud-based applications),or the content can be displayed by media guidance applications stored onthe user equipment device.

Media guidance system 500 is intended to illustrate a number ofapproaches, or network configurations, by which user equipment devicesand sources of content and guidance data may communicate with each otherfor the purpose of accessing content and providing media guidance. Theembodiments described herein may be applied in any one or a subset ofthese approaches, or in a system employing other approaches fordelivering content and providing media guidance. The following fourapproaches provide specific illustrations of the generalized example ofFIG. 5.

In one approach, user equipment devices may communicate with each otherwithin a home network. User equipment devices can communicate with eachother directly via short-range point-to-point communication schemesdescribed above, via indirect paths through a hub or other similardevice provided on a home network, or via communications network 514.Each of the multiple individuals in a single home may operate differentuser equipment devices on the home network. As a result, it may bedesirable for various media guidance information or settings to becommunicated between the different user equipment devices. For example,it may be desirable for users to maintain consistent media guidanceapplication settings on different user equipment devices within a homenetwork, as described in greater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. PatentPublication No. 2005/0251827, filed Jul. 11, 2005. Different types ofuser equipment devices in a home network may also communicate with eachother to transmit content. For example, a user may transmit content fromuser computer equipment to a portable video player or portable musicplayer.

In a second approach, users may have multiple types of user equipment bywhich they access content and obtain media guidance. For example, someusers may have home networks that are accessed by in-home and mobiledevices. Users may control in-home devices via a media guidanceapplication implemented on a remote device. For example, users mayaccess an online media guidance application on a website via a personalcomputer at their office, or a mobile device such as a PDA orweb-enabled mobile telephone. The user may set various settings (e.g.,recordings, reminders, or other settings) on the online guidanceapplication to control the user's in-home equipment. The online guidemay control the user's equipment directly, or by communicating with amedia guidance application on the user's in-home equipment. Varioussystems and methods for user equipment devices communicating, where theuser equipment devices are in locations remote from each other, isdiscussed in, for example, Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 8,046,801, issuedOct. 25, 2011, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in itsentirety.

In a third approach, users of user equipment devices inside and outsidea home can use their media guidance application to communicate directlywith content source 516 to access content. Specifically, within a home,users of user television equipment 502 and user computer equipment 504may access the media guidance application to navigate among and locatedesirable content. Users may also access the media guidance applicationoutside of the home using wireless user communications devices 506 tonavigate among and locate desirable content.

In a fourth approach, user equipment devices may operate in a cloudcomputing environment to access cloud services. In a cloud computingenvironment, various types of computing services for content sharing,storage or distribution (e.g., video sharing sites or social networkingsites) are provided by a collection of network-accessible computing andstorage resources, referred to as “the cloud.” For example, the cloudcan include a collection of server computing devices, which may belocated centrally or at distributed locations, that provide cloud-basedservices to various types of users and devices connected via a networksuch as the Internet via communications network 514. These cloudresources may include one or more content sources 516 and one or moremedia guidance data sources 518. In addition or in the alternative, theremote computing sites may include other user equipment devices, such asuser television equipment 502, user computer equipment 504, and wirelessuser communications device 506. For example, the other user equipmentdevices may provide access to a stored copy of a video or a streamedvideo. In such embodiments, user equipment devices may operate in apeer-to-peer manner without communicating with a central server.

The cloud provides access to services, such as content storage, contentsharing, or social networking services, among other examples, as well asaccess to any content described above, for user equipment devices.Services can be provided in the cloud through cloud computing serviceproviders, or through other providers of online services. For example,the cloud-based services can include a content storage service, acontent sharing site, a social networking site, or other services viawhich user-sourced content is distributed for viewing by others onconnected devices. These cloud-based services may allow a user equipmentdevice to store content to the cloud and to receive content from thecloud rather than storing content locally and accessing locally-storedcontent.

A user may use various content capture devices, such as camcorders,digital cameras with video mode, audio recorders, mobile phones, andhandheld computing devices, to record content. The user can uploadcontent to a content storage service on the cloud either directly, forexample, from user computer equipment 504 or wireless usercommunications device 506 having content capture feature. Alternatively,the user can first transfer the content to a user equipment device, suchas user computer equipment 504. The user equipment device storing thecontent uploads the content to the cloud using a data transmissionservice on communications network 514. In some embodiments, the userequipment device itself is a cloud resource, and other user equipmentdevices can access the content directly from the user equipment deviceon which the user stored the content.

Cloud resources may be accessed by a user equipment device using, forexample, a web browser, a media guidance application, a desktopapplication, a mobile application, and/or any combination of accessapplications of the same. The user equipment device may be a cloudclient that relies on cloud computing for application delivery, or theuser equipment device may have some functionality without access tocloud resources. For example, some applications running on the userequipment device may be cloud applications, i.e., applications deliveredas a service over the Internet, while other applications may be storedand run on the user equipment device. In some embodiments, a user devicemay receive content from multiple cloud resources simultaneously. Forexample, a user device can stream audio from one cloud resource whiledownloading content from a second cloud resource. Or a user device candownload content from multiple cloud resources for more efficientdownloading. In some embodiments, user equipment devices can use cloudresources for processing operations such as the processing operationsperformed by processing circuitry described in relation to FIG. 4.

As referred herein, the term “in response to” refers to initiated as aresult of. For example, a first action being performed in response to asecond action may include interstitial steps between the first actionand the second action. As referred herein, the term “directly inresponse to” refers to caused by. For example, a first action beingperformed directly in response to a second action may not includeinterstitial steps between the first action and the second action.

As referred herein, the term “virtual channel” refers to a customizedchannel generated on an interactive program guide including content fromat least two different sources. Virtual channels offer the user aconvenient way of visualizing media assets from various sources ofcontent. In some embodiments, control circuitry 404 may generate avirtual channel based on a particular content source, a particularprogram series, or user preferences. In some embodiments, controlcircuitry 404 may generate a virtual channel composed of content thatmay not be broadcast content. For example, a channel that is created formedia content that has been recorded may be considered a virtualchannel. The various sources of content may include broadcast,on-demand, recorded, and streaming video content sources.

As referred herein, the term “binge watching” or “binging” refers towatching multiple episodes of a program series consecutively in onesession. For example, watching three episodes of a program series withno or very limited interruption in between each episode may beconsidered binge watching or binging. A user may be able to binge watcha program series on a virtual channel. Virtual channels offer the user aconvenient way of visualizing the media assets the user may want tobinge watch.

FIG. 6 shows an illustrative display screen that may be used to present,in an interactive program guide, a virtual channel for binge watching aprogram series. The display screen shown in FIG. 6 may be implemented onany suitable user equipment device or platform. While the display ofFIG. 6 is illustrated as a full screen display, it may also be fully orpartially overlaid over content being displayed. A user may indicate adesire to access content information by selecting a selectable optionprovided in a display screen (e.g., a menu option, a listings option, anicon, a hyperlink, etc.) or pressing a dedicated button (e.g., a GUIDEbutton) on a remote control or other user input interface or device. Inresponse to the user's indication, the media guidance application mayprovide a display screen with media guidance data organized in one ofseveral ways, such as by time and channel in a grid, by time, bychannel, by source, by content type, by category (e.g., movies, sports,news, children, or other categories of programming), or otherpredefined, user-defined, or other organization criteria.

Another display arrangement for presenting, in an interactive programguide, a virtual channel for binge watching a program series is shown inFIG. 6. FIG. 6 shows illustrative grid of a program listings display 600arranged by time and channel that also enables access to different typesof content in a single display. Display 600 may include grid 602 with:(1) a column of channel/content type identifiers 604, where eachchannel/content type identifier (which is a cell in the column)identifies a different channel or content type available; and (2) a rowof time identifiers 606, where each time identifier (which is a cell inthe row) identifies a time block of programming. Grid 602 also includescells of program listings, such as program listing 608, where eachlisting provides the title of the program provided on the listing'sassociated channel and time. With a user input device, a user can selectprogram listings by moving highlight region 610. Information relating tothe program listing selected by highlight region 610 may be provided inprogram information region 612. Region 612 may include, for example, theprogram title, the program description, the time the program is provided(if applicable), the channel the program is on (if applicable), theprogram's rating, and other desired information.

Grid 602 may provide media guidance data for non-linear programmingincluding on-demand listing 614, recorded content listing 616, Internetcontent listing 618, and virtual channel 624. A display combining mediaguidance data for content from different types of content sources issometimes referred to as a “mixed-media” display. Various permutationsof the types of media guidance data that may be displayed that aredifferent than display 600 may be based on user selection or guidanceapplication definition (e.g., a display of only recorded and broadcastlistings, only on-demand and broadcast listings, etc.). As illustrated,listings 614, 616, 618, and 624 are shown as spanning the entire timeblock displayed in grid 602 to indicate that selection of these listingsmay provide access to a display dedicated to on-demand listings,recorded listings, or Internet listings, respectively. In someembodiments, listings for these content types may be included directlyin grid 602. Additional media guidance data may be displayed in responseto the user selecting one of the navigational icons 620. (Pressing anarrow key on a user input device may affect the display in a similarmanner as selecting navigational icons 620.)

Virtual channel 624 may include episodes of a program series the user isbinge watching. Virtual channel 624 is described in more detail in thedescription of virtual channel 124 of FIG. 1. In some embodiments,control circuitry 404 may receive a user selection of a media assetusing user input interface 410.

In some embodiments, control circuitry 404 may determine a start time ofthe media asset. In some embodiments, control circuitry 404 may extract,from a data structure in storage 408, a second indicator of the multipleindicators corresponding to the media asset. In some embodiments, thesecond indicator may indicate a start time of the media asset. In someembodiments, control circuitry 404 may determine a length of timebetween a current time and the start time of the media asset.

In some embodiments, control circuitry 404 may determine a number ofepisodes of the program series the user can watch in the length of timebefore the start time of the media asset. In some embodiments, controlcircuitry 404 may extract, from a data structure in storage 408, a thirdindicator of the multiple indicators corresponding to the programseries. In some embodiments, the third indicator may indicate an averagelength of each of the multiple next episodes of the program series theuser has not watched. In some embodiments, control circuitry 404 maydetermine a number of episodes of the program series the user can watchin the length of time before the start time of the media asset based onthe average length of each of the multiple next episodes of the programseries the user has not watched.

In some embodiments, control circuitry 404 may select a subset of themultiple episodes of the program series that the user has not watchedbased on the number of episodes the user can watch.

In some embodiments, the number of episodes the user can watch in thelength of time is greater than the multiple next episodes of the programseries that the user has not watched. In some embodiments, controlcircuitry 404 may extract, from the data structure in storage 408, afourth indicator of the multiple indicators corresponding to the programseries. In some embodiments, the fourth indicator may indicate a relatedprogram series the user has not watched. In some embodiments, controlcircuitry 404 may select a second subset of multiple episodes of therelated program series based on the number of episodes of the programseries the user can watch in the length of time and the multiple nextepisodes of the program series the user has not watched. In someembodiments, control circuitry 404 may create the virtual channel 624including the subset of the multiple next episodes of the program seriesand the second subset of the multiple episodes of the related programseries. In some embodiments, the subset of the multiple next episodes ofthe program series and the second subset of the multiple episodes of therelated program series are presented in sequence. In some embodiments,the subset of the multiple next episodes of the program series ispresented first.

In some embodiments, control circuitry 404 may create the virtualchannel 624 including the media asset the user will watch at the starttime. In some embodiments, the subset of the multiple next episodes ofthe program series and the media asset the user will watch at the starttime are presented in sequence. In some embodiments, the subset of themultiple next episodes of the program series is presented first.

Display 600 may also include video region 622, and options region 626.Video region 622 may allow the user to view and/or preview programs thatare currently available, will be available, or were available to theuser. The content of video region 622 may correspond to, or beindependent from, one of the listings displayed in grid 602. Griddisplays including a video region are sometimes referred to aspicture-in-guide (PIG) displays.

Options region 626 may allow the user to access different types ofcontent, media guidance application displays, and/or media guidanceapplication features. Options region 626 may be part of display 600 (andother display screens described herein), or may be invoked by a user byselecting an on-screen option or pressing a dedicated or assignablebutton on a user input device. The selectable options within optionsregion 626 may concern features related to program listings in grid 602or may include options available from a main menu display. Featuresrelated to program listings may include searching for other air times orways of receiving a program, recording a program, enabling seriesrecording of a program, setting program and/or channel as a favorite,purchasing a program, or other features. Options available from a mainmenu display may include search options, VOD options, parental controloptions, Internet options, cloud-based options, device synchronizationoptions, second screen device options, options to access various typesof media guidance data displays, options to subscribe to a premiumservice, options to edit a user's profile, options to access a browseoverlay, or other options.

FIGS. 7-11 present processes for control circuitry (e.g., controlcircuitry 404) to present, in an interactive program guide, a virtualcontent source for binge watching a program series in accordance withsome embodiments of the disclosure. In some embodiments this algorithmmay be encoded on to non-transitory storage medium (e.g., storage device408) as a set of instructions to be decoded and executed by processingcircuitry (e.g., processing circuitry 406). Processing circuitry may inturn provide instructions to other sub-circuits contained within controlcircuitry 404, such as the tuning, video generating, encoding, decoding,encrypting, decrypting, scaling, analog/digital conversion circuitry,and the like.

The flowchart in FIG. 7 describes a process implemented on controlcircuitry (e.g., control circuitry 404) to present, in an interactiveprogram guide, a virtual content source for binge watching a programseries in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure.

At step 702, the process implemented on control circuitry 404 topresent, in an interactive program guide, a virtual content source forbinge watching a program series will begin based on determining aprogram series a user has started watching. For example, the user mayhave started watching Game of Thrones in a previous watching session. Insome embodiments, this may be done either directly or indirectly inresponse to a user action or input (e.g., from signals received bycontrol circuitry 404 or user input interface 410). For example, theprocess may begin directly in response to control circuitry 404receiving signals from user input interface 410, or control circuitry404 may prompt the user to confirm their input using a display (e.g., bygenerating a prompt to be displayed on display 412) prior to running thealgorithm.

At step 704, control circuitry 404 proceeds to predict a number ofepisodes the user will binge watch. For example, the user may havewatched three episodes of Game of Thrones in a previous watching sessionand may desire to binge watch the next three episodes.

At step 706, control circuitry 404 proceeds to determine multipleepisodes the user has not watched watch. For example, if the user haswatched the first three episodes of Game of Thrones in a previouswatching session, the user has not watched the episodes of Game ofThrones after episode three.

At step 708, control circuitry 404 proceeds to select a subset of themultiple episodes that the user has not watched. For example, controlcircuitry 304 may select episodes four, five, and six as the subset ofthe multiple episodes of Game of Thrones that the user has not watched.

At step 710, control circuitry 404 proceeds to create a virtual contentsource including the subset. For example, the virtual content source forGame of Thrones may include the selected episodes of four, five, and sixof Game of Thrones.

At step 712, control circuitry 404 proceeds to generate for display thevirtual content source simultaneously with multiple media assetindicators corresponding to at least one other content source. Forexample, display 100 may include a virtual content source 124 for Gameof Thrones including the selected episodes of four, five, and six ofGame of Thrones.

It is contemplated that the descriptions of FIG. 7 may be used with anyother embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the descriptionsdescribed in relation to the algorithm of FIG. 7 may be done inalternative orders or in parallel to further the purposes of thisdisclosure. Furthermore, it should be noted that the process of FIG. 7may be implemented on a combination of appropriately configured softwareand hardware, and that any of the devices or equipment discussed inrelation to FIGS. 4-5 could be used to implement one or more portions ofthe process.

The flowchart in FIG. 8 describes a process implemented on controlcircuitry (e.g., control circuitry 404) to present, in an interactiveprogram guide, a virtual content source for binge watching a programseries in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure.

At step 802, the process implemented on control circuitry 404 topresent, in an interactive program guide, a virtual content source forbinge watching a program series will begin based on retrieving a datastructure from storage device 408, wherein the data structure comprisesmultiple indicators. In some embodiments, this may be done eitherdirectly or indirectly in response to a user action or input (e.g., fromsignals received by control circuitry 404 or user input interface 410).For example, the process may begin directly in response to controlcircuitry 404 receiving signals from user input interface 410, orcontrol circuitry 404 may prompt the user to confirm their input using adisplay (e.g., by generating a prompt to be displayed on display 412)prior to running the algorithm. In some embodiments, the data structuremay be retrieved from storage 408.

At step 804, control circuitry 404 proceeds to extract a first indicatorof the multiple indicators corresponding to a program series, whereinthe first indicator indicates a number of episodes of the program seriesthe user has watched. For example, the first indicator may indicate thatthe user may have started watching Game of Thrones in a previouswatching session. For example, the first indicator may also indicatethat the user has watched the first three episodes of Game of Thrones ina previous watching session.

At step 806, control circuitry 404 proceeds to determine whether thenumber of episodes of the program series the user has watched is morethan one. For example, if the user has watched the first three episodesof Game of Thrones, then control circuitry 404 may determine that thenumber of episodes of the program series that the user has watched ismore than one.

If control circuitry 404 determines that the number of episodes of theprogram series that the user has watched is not more than one, thenprocess 800 may proceed to step 808. At step 808, control circuitry 404ends the process.

If control circuitry 404 determines that the number of episodes of theprogram series that the user has watched is more than one, then process800 may proceed to step 810. At step 810, control circuitry 404 proceedsto extract a second indicator of the multiple indicators correspondingto the program series, wherein the second indicator indicates a firstnumber of binge watching sessions during which the user has watched atleast one episode of the program series. For example, if the userwatched the first three episodes of Game of Thrones in one watchingsession, then control circuitry 404 may determine that the number ofbinge watching sessions during which the user has watched at least oneepisode of Game of Thrones is one.

At step 812, control circuitry 404 proceeds to calculate an averagenumber of episodes the user watches in one binge watching session basedon the number of episodes of the program series the user has watched andthe first number of binge watching sessions during which the user haswatched at least one episode of the program series. For example, if theuser has watched the first three episodes of Game of Thrones in onebinge watching session, then control circuitry 404 may calculate theaverage number of episodes the user watches in one binge watchingsession to be three. For example, if the user has watched the first 12episodes of Game of Thrones in two binge watching sessions, then controlcircuitry 404 may calculate the average number of episodes the userwatches in one binge watching session to be six.

At step 814, control circuitry 404 proceeds to determine whether theaverage number of episodes the user watches in one binge watchingsession is more than one. For example, if the average number of episodesof Game of Thrones the user watches in one binge watching session isthree, then control circuitry 404 may determine that the average numberof episodes the user watches in one binge watching session is more thanone.

If control circuitry 404 determines that the average number of episodesthe user watches in one binge watching session is not more than one,then process 800 may proceed to step 816. At step 816, control circuitry404 proceeds to end the process.

If control circuitry 404 determines that the average number of episodesthe user watches in one binge watching session is more than one, thenprocess 800 may proceed to step 818. At step 818, control circuitry 404proceeds to determine multiple next episodes of the program series theuser has not watched. For example, if the user has watched the firstthree episodes of Game of Thrones in a previous watching session,control circuitry 404 may determine that the user has not watched theepisodes of Game of Thrones after episode three.

At step 820, control circuitry 404 proceeds to determine a predictedsecond number of episodes of the program series that the user will watchduring a current binge watching session based on the average number ofepisodes the user watches in one session. For example, if the averagenumber of episodes the user watches in one binge watching session ofGame of Thrones is three, then control circuitry may determine that thepredicted second number of episodes of Game of Thrones that the userwill watch during the current binge watching session is three. In someembodiments, control circuitry 404 may determine the predicted secondnumber of episodes of the program series that the user will watch duringthe current binge watching session based on the time of day or day ofthe week associated with a prior binge watching session.

At step 822, control circuitry 404 proceeds to select a subset of themultiple next episodes of the program series based on the predictedsecond number of episodes of the program series. For example, if thepredicted second number of episodes of Game of Thrones the user willwatch is three, then control circuitry 404 may select episodes four,five, and six as the subset of the multiple episodes of Game of Thronesthat the user has not watched.

In some embodiments, control circuitry 404 may extract, from the datastructure, a third indicator of the multiple indicators corresponding tothe program series. The third indicator may indicate a third number ofbinge watching sessions during which the user has watched at least twoepisodes of the program series. In some embodiments, control circuitry404 may determine that the third number of binge watching sessionsduring which the user has watched at least two episodes of the programseries is more than one. In some embodiments, control circuitry 404 maydetermine, based on the first indicator of the multiple indicatorscorresponding to the program series, the multiple next episodes of theprogram series the user has not watched. In some embodiments, controlcircuitry 404 may determine the predicted second number of episodes ofthe program series that the user will watch during the current bingewatching session based on a second average number of episodes the userwatched during the third binge watching sessions.

In some embodiments, control circuitry 404 may extract, from the datastructure, a fourth indicator of the multiple indicators correspondingto the program series. The fourth indicator may indicate an averagelength of time the user spends watching the program series during thefirst binge watching sessions. In some embodiments, control circuitry404 may determine the predicted second number of episodes of the programseries that the user will watch during the current binge watchingsession based on the average length of time.

In some embodiments, the average number of episodes the user watches inone binge watching session may be more than the multiple next episodesof the program series the user has not watched. In some embodiments,control circuitry 404 may extract, from the data structure, a fifthindicator of the multiple indicators corresponding to the programseries. The fifth indicator may indicate a related program series theuser has not watched. In some embodiments, the control circuitry 404 maydetermine a third number of episodes of the related program series thatthe user will watch based on the difference between the average numberof episodes the user watches in one session and the multiple nextepisodes of the program series the user has not watched. In someembodiments, control circuitry 404 may select a second subset ofmultiple episodes of the related program series based on the thirdnumber of episodes of the related program series that the user willwatch.

At step 824, control circuitry 404 proceeds to create a virtual contentsource including the subset. For example, the virtual content source forGame of Thrones may include the selected episodes of four, five, and sixof Game of Thrones. In some embodiments, control circuitry 404 maycreate the virtual content source by retrieving the subset of themultiple next episodes of the program series from multiple contentsources. In some embodiments, the multiple content sources may comprisebroadcast, on-demand, recorded, and streaming video content sources. Insome embodiments, the control circuitry 404 may create the virtualcontent source including the first subset of the multiple next episodesof the program series and the second subset of the multiple episodes ofthe related program series. The first subset of the multiple nextepisodes of the program series and the second subset of the multipleepisodes of the related program series may be presented in sequence. Thefirst subset of the multiple next episodes of the program series may bepresented first.

At step 826, control circuitry 404 proceeds to generate for display thevirtual content source simultaneously with multiple media assetindicators corresponding to at least one other content source. Forexample, display 100 may include a virtual content source 124 for Gameof Thrones including the selected episodes of four, five, and six ofGame of Thrones.

It is contemplated that the descriptions of FIG. 8 may be used with anyother embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the descriptionsdescribed in relation to the algorithm of FIG. 8 may be done inalternative orders or in parallel to further the purposes of thisdisclosure. Furthermore, it should be noted that the process of FIG. 8may be implemented on a combination of appropriately configured softwareand hardware, and that any of the devices or equipment discussed inrelation to FIGS. 4-5 could be used to implement one or more portions ofthe process.

The flowchart in FIG. 9 describes a process implemented on controlcircuitry (e.g., control circuitry 404) to present, in an interactiveprogram guide, a virtual content source for binge watching a programseries in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure.

At step 902, the process implemented on control circuitry 404 topresent, in an interactive program guide, a virtual content source forbinge watching a program series will begin based on determining aprogram series a user has started watching. For example, the user mayhave started watching Game of Thrones in a previous watching session. Insome embodiments, this may be done either directly or indirectly inresponse to a user action or input (e.g., from signals received bycontrol circuitry 404 or user input interface 410). For example, theprocess may begin directly in response to control circuitry 404receiving signals from user input interface 410, or control circuitry404 may prompt the user to confirm their input using a display (e.g., bygenerating a prompt to be displayed on display 412) prior to running thealgorithm.

At step 904, control circuitry 404 proceeds to determine multipleepisodes of the program series that the user has not watched. Forexample, if the user has watched the first three episodes of Game ofThrones in a previous watching session, the user has not watched theepisodes of Game of Thrones after episode three.

At step 906, control circuitry 404 proceeds to receive a user selectionof a media asset. In some embodiments, the user may use user inputinterface 310 to select the media asset. For example, the user mayselect the News from a channel.

At step 908, control circuitry 404 proceeds to determine a start time ofthe media asset. For example, control circuitry 404 may determine thatthe start time for the News is 10 PM.

At step 910, control circuitry 404 proceeds to determine a length oftime based on a current time and the start time of the media asset. Forexample, if the current time is 7 PM and the start time of the mediaasset is 10 PM, then control circuitry 404 may determine that the lengthof time based on the current time and the start time of the media assetis three hours.

At step 912, control circuitry 404 proceeds to determine a number ofepisodes of the program series the user can watch in the length of timebefore the start time of the media asset. For example, if the length ofeach episode of Game of Thrones is one hour, then control circuitry 404may determine that the number of episodes of the program series the usercan watch in the length of time before the start time of the media assetis three.

At step 914, control circuitry 404 proceeds to select a subset of themultiple episodes of the program series that the user has not watchedbased on the number of episodes the user can watch. For example, if thenumber of episodes of Game of Thrones the user will can watch is three,then control circuitry 404 may select episodes four, five, and six asthe subset of the multiple episodes of Game of Thrones that the user hasnot watched.

At step 916, control circuitry 404 proceeds to create a virtual contentsource including the subset. For example, the virtual content source forGame of Thrones may include the selected episodes of four, five, and sixof Game of Thrones.

At step 918, control circuitry 404 proceeds to generate for display thevirtual content source simultaneously with multiple media assetindicators corresponding to at least one other content source. Forexample, display 600 may include a virtual content source 624 for Gameof Thrones including the selected episodes of four, five, and six ofGame of Thrones.

It is contemplated that the descriptions of FIG. 9 may be used with anyother embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the descriptionsdescribed in relation to the algorithm of FIG. 9 may be done inalternative orders or in parallel to further the purposes of thisdisclosure. Furthermore, it should be noted that the process of FIG. 9may be implemented on a combination of appropriately configured softwareand hardware, and that any of the devices or equipment discussed inrelation to FIGS. 4-5 could be used to implement one or more portions ofthe process.

The flowchart in FIG. 10 describes a process implemented on controlcircuitry (e.g., control circuitry 404) to present, in an interactiveprogram guide, a virtual content source for binge watching a programseries in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure.

At step 1002, the process implemented on control circuitry 404 topresent, in an interactive program guide, a virtual content source forbinge watching a program series will begin based on retrieving a datastructure, wherein the data structure comprises multiple indicators. Insome embodiments, this may be done either directly or indirectly inresponse to a user action or input (e.g., from signals received bycontrol circuitry 404 or user input interface 410). For example, theprocess may begin directly in response to control circuitry 304receiving signals from user input interface 410, or control circuitry404 may prompt the user to confirm their input using a display (e.g., bygenerating a prompt to be displayed on display 312) prior to running thealgorithm. In some embodiments, the data structure may be retrieved fromstorage 408.

At step 1004, control circuitry 404 proceeds to extract a firstindicator of the multiple indicators corresponding to a program series,wherein the first indicator indicates a number of episodes of theprogram series the user has watched. For example, the first indicatormay indicate that the user may have started watching Game of Thrones ina previous watching session. For example, the first indicator may alsoindicate that the user has watched the first three episodes of Game ofThrones in a previous watching session.

At step 1006, control circuitry 404 proceeds to determine whether thenumber of episodes of the program series the user has watched is morethan one. For example, if the user has watched the first three episodesof Game of Thrones, then control circuitry 404 may determine that thenumber of episodes of the program series that the user has watched ismore than one.

If control circuitry 404 determines that the number of episodes of theprogram series that the user has watched is not more than one, thenprocess 1000 may proceed to step 1008. At step 1008, control circuitry404 proceeds to end the process.

If control circuitry 404 determines that the number of episodes of theprogram series that the user has watched is more than one, then process1000 may proceed to step 1010. At step 1010, control circuitry 404proceeds to determine, based on the first indicator of the multipleindicators corresponding to the program series, multiple next episodesof the program series the user has not watched. For example, if the userhas watched the first three episodes of Game of Thrones in a previouswatching session, control circuitry 404 may determine that the user hasnot watched the episodes of Game of Thrones after episode three.

At step 1012, control circuitry 404 proceeds to receive a user selectionof a media asset. In some embodiments, the user may use user inputinterface 410 to select the media asset. For example, the user mayselect the News from a channel.

At step 1014, control circuitry 404 proceeds to extract a secondindicator of the multiple indicators corresponding to the media asset,wherein the second indicator indicates a start time of the media asset.For example, control circuitry 404 may extract from the second indicatorof the multiple indicators corresponding to the News that the start timefor the News is 10 PM.

At step 1016, control circuitry 404 proceeds to determine a length oftime based on a current time and the start time of the media asset. Forexample, if the current time is 7 PM and the start time of the mediaasset is 10 PM, then control circuitry 404 may determine that the lengthof time based on the current time and the start time of the media assetis three hours.

At step 1018, control circuitry 404 proceeds to extract a thirdindicator of the multiple indicators corresponding to the programseries, wherein the third indicator indicates an average length of eachof the multiple next episodes of the program series. For example, if thelength of each episode of Game of Thrones is one hour, then controlcircuitry 404 may extract from the third indicator that the averagelength of each episode of Game of Thrones that the user has not watchedis one hour.

At step 1020, control circuitry 404 proceeds to determine a number ofepisodes of the program series the user can watch in the length of timebefore the start time of the media asset based on the average length ofeach of the multiple next episodes of the program series the user hasnot watched. For example, if the average length of each episode of Gameof Thrones is one hour, then control circuitry 404 may determine thatthe number of episodes of Game of Thrones the user can watch in thelength of time before the start time of the News is three.

At step 1022, control circuitry 404 proceeds to select a subset of themultiple next episodes of the program series that the user has notwatched based on the number of episodes the user can watch. For example,if the number of episodes of Game of Thrones the user will can watch isthree, then control circuitry 404 may select episodes four, five, andsix as the subset of the multiple episodes of Game of Thrones that theuser has not watched.

In some embodiments, the number of episodes the user can watch in thelength of time is greater than the multiple next episodes of the programseries that the user has not watched. In some embodiments, controlcircuitry 404 may extract, from the data structure, a fourth indicatorof the multiple indicators corresponding to the program series. In someembodiments, the fourth indicator may indicate a related program seriesthe user has not watched. In some embodiments, control circuitry 404 mayselect a second subset of multiple episodes of the related programseries based on the number of episodes of the program series the usercan watch in the length of time and the multiple next episodes of theprogram series the user has not watched.

At step 1024, control circuitry 404 proceeds to create the virtualcontent source including the subset. For example, the virtual contentsource for Game of Thrones may include the selected episodes of four,five, and six of Game of Thrones. In some embodiments, control circuitry404 may create the virtual content source by retrieving the subset ofthe multiple next episodes of the program series from a multiple contentsources. In some embodiments, the multiple content sources may comprisebroadcast, on-demand, recorded, and streaming video content sources. Insome embodiments, control circuitry 404 may create the virtual contentsource including the subset of the multiple next episodes of the programseries and the second subset of the multiple episodes of the relatedprogram series. In some embodiments, the subset of the multiple nextepisodes of the program series and the second subset of the multipleepisodes of the related program series are presented in sequence. Insome embodiments, the subset of the multiple next episodes of theprogram series is presented first.

In some embodiments, control circuitry 404 may create the virtualcontent source including the media asset the user will watch at thestart time. In some embodiments, the subset of the multiple nextepisodes of the program series and the media asset the user will watchat the start time are presented in sequence. In some embodiments, thesubset of the multiple next episodes of the program series is presentedfirst.

In some embodiments, the media asset corresponds to an episode of arelated program series related to the program series. In someembodiments, control circuitry 404 may create the virtual content sourceincluding a recent episode of the related program series. In someembodiments, the subset of the multiple next episodes of the programseries and the recent episodes of the related program series arepresented in sequence. In some embodiments, the subset of the multiplenext episodes of the program series is presented first.

At step 1026, control circuitry 404 proceeds to generate for display thevirtual content source simultaneously with multiple media assetindicators corresponding to at least one other content source. Forexample, display 600 may include virtual content source 624 for Game ofThrones including the selected episodes of four, five, and six of Gameof Thrones.

It is contemplated that the descriptions of FIG. 10 may be used with anyother embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the descriptionsdescribed in relation to the algorithm of FIG. 10 may be done inalternative orders or in parallel to further the purposes of thisdisclosure. Furthermore, it should be noted that the process of FIG. 10may be implemented on a combination of appropriately configured softwareand hardware, and that any of the devices or equipment discussed inrelation to FIGS. 4-5 could be used to implement one or more portions ofthe process.

The flowchart in FIG. 11 describes a process implemented on controlcircuitry (e.g., control circuitry 404) to present, in an interactiveprogram guide, a virtual content source for binge watching a programseries in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure.

At step 1102, the process implemented on control circuitry 404 topresent, in an interactive program guide, a virtual content source forbinge watching a program series will begin based on determining a numberof episodes of a program series the user has watched. For example, theuser may have watched three episodes of Game of Thrones in a previouswatching session. In some embodiments, this may be done either directlyor indirectly in response to a user action or input (e.g., from signalsreceived by control circuitry 404 or user input interface 410). Forexample, the process may begin directly in response to control circuitry404 receiving signals from user input interface 410, or controlcircuitry 404 may prompt the user to confirm their input using a display(e.g., by generating a prompt to be displayed on display 412) prior torunning the algorithm.

At step 1104, control circuitry 404 proceeds to determine a number ofbinge watching sessions during which the user has watched at least oneepisode of the program series. For example, if the user watched thefirst three episodes of Game of Thrones in one watching session, thencontrol circuitry 404 may determine that the number of binge watchingsessions during which the user has watched at least one episode of Gameof Thrones is one.

At step 1106, control circuitry 404 proceeds to calculate an averagenumber of episodes of the program series the user watches in one bingewatching session. For example, if the user has watched the first threeepisodes of Game of Thrones in one binge watching session, then controlcircuitry 404 may calculate the average number of episodes the userwatches in one binge watching session to be three. For example, if theuser has watched the first 12 episodes of Game of Thrones in two bingewatching sessions, then control circuitry 404 may calculate the averagenumber of episodes the user watches in one binge watching session to besix.

At step 1108, control circuitry 404 proceeds to determine whether theaverage number of episodes of the program series the user watches in onebinge watching session is greater than one. For example, if the averagenumber of episodes of Game of Thrones the user watches in one bingewatching session is three, then control circuitry 404 may determine thatthe average number of episodes the user watches in one binge watchingsession is more than one.

If control circuitry 404 determines that the average number of episodesthe user watches in one binge watching session is not more than one,then process 1100 may proceed to step 1110. At step 1110, controlcircuitry 404 proceeds to end the process.

If control circuitry 404 determines that the average number of episodesthe user watches in one binge watching session is more than one, thenprocess 1100 may proceed to step 1112. At step 1112, control circuitry404 proceeds to determine a number of episodes of the program series theuser has not watched. For example, if the user has watched the firstthree episodes of Game of Thrones in a previous watching session,control circuitry 404 may determine that the user has not watched theepisodes of Game of Thrones after episode three.

At step 1114, control circuitry 404 proceeds to determine whether thenumber of episodes of the program series the user has not watched isgreater than or equal to the average number of episodes of the programseries the user watches in one binge watching session. In response todetermining that the number of episodes of the program series the userhas not watched is not greater than or equal to the average number ofepisodes of the program series the user watches in one binge watchingsession, control circuitry 404 proceeds to step 1116. In response todetermining that the number of episodes of the program series the userhas not watched is greater than or equal to the average number orepisodes of the program series the user watched in one binge watchingsession, control circuitry proceeds to step 1118.

At step 1116, control circuitry 404 proceeds to select the number ofepisodes of the program series the user has not watched as a firstpredicted number of episodes the user will binge watch. For example, ifthe average number of episodes of Game of Thrones the user watches inone binge watching session is three and the episodes of Game of Thronesthe user has not watched is only the last two episodes, then controlcircuitry 404 may proceed to select two as the first predicted number ofepisodes of Game of Thrones the user will binge watch.

At step 1118, control circuitry 404 proceeds to select the averagenumber of episodes of the program series the user watches in one bingewatching session as a second predicted number of episodes the user willbinge watch. For example, if the average number of episodes of Game ofThrones the user watches in one binge watching session is three and thenumber of episodes of Game of Thrones the user has not watched is fourepisodes, then control circuitry 404 may proceed to select three as thesecond predicted number of episodes of Game of Thrones the user willbinge watch.

It is contemplated that the descriptions of FIG. 11 may be used with anyother embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the descriptionsdescribed in relation to the algorithm of FIG. 11 may be done inalternative orders or in parallel to further the purposes of thisdisclosure. Furthermore, it should be noted that the process of FIG. 11may be implemented on a combination of appropriately configured softwareand hardware, and that any of the devices or equipment discussed inrelation to FIGS. 4-5 could be used to implement one or more portions ofthe process.

The above embodiments of the present disclosure are presented forpurposes of illustration and not of limitation, and the presentdisclosure is limited only by the claims that follow. Furthermore, itshould be noted that the features and limitations described in any oneembodiment may be applied to any other embodiments herein, andflowcharts or examples relating to one embodiment may be combined withany other embodiment in a suitable manner, done in different orders, ordone in parallel. In addition, the systems and methods described hereinmay be performed in real time. It should also be noted that the systemsand/or methods described above may be applied to, or used in accordancewith, other systems and/or methods.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for presenting, in an interactiveprogram guide, a virtual content source for binge watching a programseries, the method comprising: retrieving, from a database, a datastructure, wherein the data structure comprises a plurality ofindicators for each of a plurality of program series; extracting, fromthe data structure, a first indicator of the plurality of indicatorscorresponding to a first program series of the plurality of programseries, wherein the first indicator relates to a number of episodes ofthe first program series the user has watched; determining, based on thefirst indicator, a predicted number of episodes of the first programseries that the user will watch during a current binge watching session;selecting a plurality of unwatched episodes of the first program seriesbased on the predicted number of episodes; creating the virtual contentsource including a first episode, of the plurality of unwatchedepisodes, from a first source, and a second episode, of the plurality ofunwatched episodes, from a second source; and generating for display, inthe interactive program guide, the virtual content source with a firstmedia asset indicator corresponding to the first episode and a secondmedia asset indicator corresponding to the second episode.
 2. The methodof claim 1, wherein the first content source is different from thesecond content source.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the predictednumber of episodes of the first program series the user will watch inthe current binge watching session of a length of time available to theuser is greater than the plurality of unwatched episodes of the firstprogram series.
 4. The method of claim 1, further comprising extracting,from the data structure, a second indicator of the plurality ofindicators corresponding to the program series, wherein the secondindicator indicates a related program series the user has not watched.5. The method of claim 4, further comprising selecting a first subset ofa plurality of episodes of the related program series based on thepredicted number of episodes of the program series the user will watchin the current binge watching session of a length of time and theplurality of unwatched episodes of the first program series.
 6. Themethod of claim 5, further comprising creating the virtual contentsource including the predicted number of episodes of the program seriesand the first subset of the plurality of episodes of the related programseries.
 7. The method of claim 6, wherein the predicted number ofepisodes of the program series and the first subset of the plurality ofepisodes of the related program series are presented in sequence,wherein the predicted number of episodes of the program series ispresented first.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein creating the virtualcontent source further comprises retrieving the predicted number ofepisodes of the program series from a plurality of content sources,wherein the plurality of content sources comprises at least one ofbroadcast, on demand, recorded, and streaming video content sources. 9.The method of claim 1, wherein creating the virtual content sourcefurther comprises including a media asset the user will watch at thestart time, wherein the predicted number of episodes of the programseries and the media asset the user will watch at the start time arepresented in sequence, wherein the media asset is presented first. 10.The method of claim 9, wherein the media asset corresponds to an episodeof a related program series related to the program series.
 11. A systemfor presenting, in an interactive program guide, a virtual contentsource for binge watching a program series, the system comprisingcontrol circuitry configured to: retrieve, from a database, a datastructure, wherein the data structure comprises a plurality ofindicators for each of a plurality of program series; extract, from thedata structure, a first indicator of the plurality of indicatorscorresponding to a first program series of the plurality of programseries, wherein the first indicator relates to a number of episodes ofthe first program series the user has watched; determine, based on thefirst indicator, a predicted number of episodes of the first programseries that the user will watch during a current binge watching session;select a plurality of unwatched episodes of the first program seriesbased on the predicted number of episodes; create the virtual contentsource including a first episode, of the plurality of unwatchedepisodes, from a first source, and a second episode, of the plurality ofunwatched episodes, from a second source; and generate for display, inthe interactive program guide, the virtual content source with a firstmedia asset indicator corresponding to the first episode and a secondmedia asset indicator corresponding to the second episode.
 12. Thesystem of claim 11, wherein the first content source is different fromthe second content source.
 13. The system of claim 11, wherein thepredicted number of episodes of the first program series the user willwatch in the current binge watching session of a length of timeavailable to the user is greater than the plurality of unwatchedepisodes of the first program series.
 14. The system of claim 11,wherein the control circuitry is further configured to: extract, fromthe data structure, a second indicator of the plurality of indicatorscorresponding to the program series, wherein the second indicatorindicates a related program series the user has not watched.
 15. Thesystem of claim 14, wherein the control circuitry is further configuredto select a first subset of a plurality of episodes of the relatedprogram series based on the predicted number of episodes of the firstprogram series the user will watch in the current binge watching sessionof a length of time and the plurality of unwatched episodes of the firstprogram series.
 16. The system of claim 15, further comprising creatingthe virtual content source including the predicted number of episodes ofthe program series and the first subset of the plurality of episodes ofthe related program series.
 17. The system of claim 16, wherein thepredicted number of episodes of the program series and the first subsetof the plurality of episodes of the related program series are presentedin sequence, wherein the predicted number of episodes of the programseries is presented first.
 18. The system of claim 11, wherein thecontrol circuitry is further configured, when creating the virtualcontent source, to: retrieve the predicted number of episodes of theprogram series from a plurality of content sources, wherein theplurality of content sources comprises at least one of broadcast, ondemand, recorded, and streaming video content sources.
 19. The system ofclaim 11, wherein the control circuitry is further configured, whencreating the virtual content source, to: include a media asset the userwill watch at the start time, wherein the predicted number of episodesof the program series and the media asset the user will watch at thestart time are presented in sequence, wherein the media asset ispresented first.
 20. The system of claim 19, wherein the media assetcorresponds to an episode of a related program series related to theprogram series.